Okay, can I call it now that there will be complaints about the overcrowding?

Regardless, I don't see this as a bad move for them as an organization. Last year, Otakon had its worst year in terms of growth due to the attendance cap. Too many people thought that there would be no registrations left and they ended up with only 500 people more than in 2005 (I'm guessing on that part, but it was only like a 2-3% increase over the prior year).

The interesting thing will be to see how much of an affect having so many large cons in such a short time frame will have on Otakon. With ANEXT and AE so close to Otakon, you know there will be some kind of effect.

I *think* Otakon was planning to move some of their events across the street to the First Mariner Arena, so that there wouldn't so much overcrowding. Whether or not that has actually happened, someone from the Otakon team will have to confirm.

I don't see how there can absolutely be no attendance cap and still have things run safely. I am staff for the Animaritime convention and we had to cap our attendance for the first time this year because we were at the convention center's capacity limit. Maybe Otakon's limit is really high, but there has to be some number that, if surpassed, would lead to a fire hazard.

Being at Otakon these last couple of years, I can see how they could concievably stuff more people inside the BCC to begin with. Also, remember, Baltimore, especially the touristy Inner Harbor area, is filled with space Otakon could be using, like Rams Head for example.

Last year, Otakon had its worst year in terms of growth due to the attendance cap. Too many people thought that there would be no registrations left and they ended up with only 500 people more than in 2005 (I'm guessing on that part, but it was only like a 2-3% increase over the prior year)..

It kept those under 18 (with no credit/debit cards) from pre registering.

The BCC actually has a lot more room than is used, from what I know. Everything tends to get overcrowded because it's all in a few main areas of the building... I think the biggest issue will be fixing the location of the rooms. I've always been annoyed at the way the video rooms were all in different places, and at having to walk a really long distance through a crowd just to take a peek at some event. If they don't organize it a little better, the quality of the event is going to go in the tank.

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